The Communist Menace What To Tell Friends Who Are Scared of the DSA August 11, 2026August 11, 2026 Trump: “Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world, only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. It’s like a cancer, you got to cut it out.” Communism is like a cancer. It always leads to tyranny. Fortunately, not a single elected officeholder in America (out of roughly 500,000) is a communist. Nor a single serious candidate for office, for that matter. The fear that team-Trump hopes to stoke to draw attention from the horrible mess he’s made (see below: reckless and feckless) is ridiculous. Not one in half a million? Is that really a menace? I’ll get to Democratic socialists in a second — but wait a minute! What about our warriors who battled FASCISM on battlefields across the world, only to have THAT menace rear its ugly head right back here in America? Isn’t that like a cancer, too? Don’t you have to cut it out, too? And here’s the difference: Where no Democratic candidate or officeholder is a communist (though some do openly aspire to see America be more like Canada and Europe) the leader of the Republican Party is himself a budding fascist, in the style of Mussolini. Here are some of the characteristics of fascism: Strongman leadership style (loyalty over merit; personal whim over institutional competence) Authoritarian rhetoric (attacks on courts, press, and elections) Populist nationalism (Make America Great Again) Self-glorification (“I alone can fix it,” portraits of the leader’s face on government buildings, on the proposed $250 bill, on passports; renaming the Kennedy Center . . .) Demonization of out-groups (immigrants, Democrats, trans Americans) Racism (firing black generals, branding black leaders “low IQ,” welcoming white Afrikaners) Dehumanization (“scum,” “vermin”) Co-optation of the business elite (in the front row of his inauguration) A brown-shirt type police force (masked and unidentified) Thugs loyal to the leader (celebrated as patriots, pardoned when convicted) Constant disinformation (Orwell on steroids) I doubt you can find a Democratic officeholder who for years kept a book of Karl Marx by his bedside . . . but Trump for years kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his. Where the co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America — a woman with no power that no one had ever heard of until last month — goes on TV saying we should abolish the Senate . . . perhaps because Wyoming’s 600,000 fine citizens have as much power as California’s 40 million . . . Trump has all but entirely co-opted the Senate. Or just ignored it, as in the case of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. So yes: The platform of the Democratic Socialists of America has crazy stuff in it. But it is not stuff that “mainstream” Democratic Socialists — like Bernie and AOC and Zohran — advocate. Abolish the police and prisons? And borders? And the Senate? And private property? I mean — come on. If the DSA co-chair runs for president, as she has every right to, I’d be amazed if she won the endorsement of a single Democrat. So, if you know anyone who is genuinely scared by the Red Menace — and not just pretending to be, like Trump — share this info with them so they can relax and enjoy the rest of the summer. And if you know anyone who’s terrified we will become a country with free public education or free roads or free public parks — or higher income tax rates — as they have in Canada and Europe and Australia and just about everywhere else . . . or that we’ll have universal health care (with access to private care and luxury hospital suites for those who can afford it) . . . suggest that they vacation to Madrid or Milan or Munich or Montreal or Melbourne and see whether those are really the hell holes Trump would have you think. ‘ And remind them that we already have a lot of these socialist things. Do they really want to abolish Medicare (the creation of which Ronald Reagan so vigorously opposed)? Do they really want to cut off food assistance to children, the disabled, veterans and the elderly who need it? I don’t think they do. RECKLESS AND FECKLESS How could we have let this happen??? Our country was so recently “the envy of the world.” The good guy that, despite all her flaws and missteps, was seen to stand for freedom, compassion, leadership. Truth, justice, and the American way, so to speak. Fighting corruption, not governed by it. Before Trump, inflation had fallen to 2.7% and was headed down, as were interest rates. Job growth was strong. Today, we have stagflation: rising prices and stagnant job growth. Before Trump, the Strait of Hormuz was open and we had unlimited 24/7 inspection of its nuclear facilities, with 98% of their enriched uranium removed. What’s more, our awesome military invincibility was taken as a given. Today, the Strait is closed, and the world sees us as both reckless and feckless. Iran has us over a barrel. Millions of barrels, actually. I ask again: how could we have let this happen? He promised to end the Ukraine War on Day one, to bring prices down on Day One. He alone could fix it. He hired “all the best people.” (Mostly from FOX News.) All twenty-odd women who had accused him of wrongdoing were lying. Not since Lincoln has a president ever been so badly treated! Everything is rigged against him! He is such a victim! The more than $2 billion by which he’s enriched his family in a year and a half in no way violates the emoluments clause of the Constitution. The economy is hot! Everybdy knows it! Things are great! He’s the most handsome, healthy, honest, successful president in history — and if you don’t agree, just look at all the monuments he’s erecting to himself. He won the FIFA Peace Prize, for crying out loud! And how about the gladiators he had fighting on the White House lawn? And the way he’s bulldozed the East Wing and refurbished the reflecting pool? Mount Rushmore, here he comes. If only he can protect us from the radical lunatic communist scum who don’t approve of the job he’s doing. Which is 66% of the country. Join Indivisible! 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Pete Hegseth’s Pastor On Hand Jobs And Oral Sex August 9, 2026 But first . . . A Democrat Sounds the Alarm on Christian Nationalism in Congress Representative Jared Huffman of California, the only self-declared “humanist” in Congress [read: “atheist” and note that there are many others un-declared], writes in a new book [No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism] that the separation of church and state is in grave danger. . . . Speaker Mike Johnson is a Christian nationalist who dangerously blurs the boundary between church and state. The speaker, who has placed his evangelical Christianity at the center of his political life and policy positions, did not respond to a request for comment about the book’s claims. . . . “He has been hapless and ineffective at governing [Huffman tells the Times]. But if you judge him by, “Has he advanced the cause of Christian nationalism?” he’s been wildly successful.” See also my oft-recommended Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds. And now . . . PETE HEGSETH’S PASTOR ON HAND JOBS AND ORAL SEX Doug Wilson seems like a nice guy (truly), but in this interview with Uncloseted Media he has some bad news for homosexuals — and women. I’m on the advisory board of Uncloseted Media, and a fan of its founder, a former producer at “60 Minutes” who once imbedded himself with the Boogaloo Boys. One question I wish Spencer had thought to ask Pastor Wilson: “Do you believe that when my boyfriend and I are in Hell we will meet Trump?”
Brave Susan / Muslim Abdul August 8, 2026August 8, 2026 Susan Collins had the courage to stand up against her party 61 times (61 times!) when Republicans controlled the Senate in the years since 1997, as they do now — not even counting her brave announcement this past week that she would vote against Trump’s pick for attorney general, Epstein-files-scofflaw Todd Blanche. (Look at that, Mainers! She stands up to Trump!) The only thing is . . . according to an analysis a classmate of mine just did with the help of A.I. . . . that in 60 of those 61 instances (60!), she knew her vote wouldn’t matter, so she got permission to do it, and it was not bravery on display, but cunning hypocrisy. (Look at that, Mainers: she thinks you’re stupid!) (The lone exception was a 2000 legislative-branch appropriations conference report defeated 28–69, with Republicans themselves almost evenly divided, so it was hardly much by way of defiance.) Every one of her 27 votes against a Republican president’s nominee ended in confirmation. And Trump’s Big Ugly Bill? Collins was — bravely! — the sole Republican NO. But, as planned, it squeaked by when Vance broke the 50-50 tie. She is, of course, famously ridiculed for being “concerned” about women losing control over their reproductive organs — etc. — but the only thing I think she’s really concerned about is losing to Troy Jackson. It will be sweet when she does. Abdul El-Sayed FIRES BACK at anti-Muslim attacks in Michigan Senate race (11 minutes). Some of my friends are worried about this guy. On the one hand, he says: “To all of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith, or any faith at all, or no faith at all, I want you to know that my commitment to your safety — to Jewish safety — is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters,” he said. On the other, he sympathizes even more than most of the rest of us do with the plight of the Palestinians. I’m naive enough to think he means what he said above. But even if not, he will be just one of 100 senators. Nowhere near a filibuster-proof majority. So I think the concerns are overdone. My main concern is winning the Senate — and supporting Dr. El-Sayed is a key part of doing that. BONUS How the Reflecting Pool Came to Mirror Trump’s Washington Many of the details of the saga are reported in this article for the first time. They show that the pool, which was supposed to reflect the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, became a striking reflection instead of the second Trump administration’s willingness to skirt laws, expend millions of dollars, ignore facts and punish truth tellers in service of the president’s demands to put his mark on the capital. Join Indivisible! Support the opposition!
You Go, Pete! August 7, 2026August 6, 2026 Pete Buttigieg on FOX (15 minutes). America elected an extraordinary black president. I’m not entirely sure — which is in itself astonishing — that it might not be ready to elect an extraordinary gay president. How far we’ve come. FAREED ZAKARIA Trump appears to order the government to lie on behalf of tariffs. . . . For these new sweeping tariffs, the rationale — discovered suddenly in the last few months — is alleged forced labor. The administration has declared that countries ranging from Cambodia and China to Norway, Japan and Australia have failed to keep products made with forced labor out of their markets, and that this failure burdens American commerce. The charge is so obviously spurious and sweeping (Sweden is as bad as Cambodia?) that it gives away the game. It was almost certainly devised because the White House needed a legal pretext to subvert the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling against Trump. This is more than ordinary political spin. The president appears to be ordering the United States government to formally certify as fact something it knows is not true. Agencies must publish findings, construct legal arguments and affix the authority of the American state to a falsehood manufactured for the apparent purpose of evading the nation’s highest court. That is how institutions are corrupted: First they are asked to bend the truth, then to attest to the lie. And then the lies become routine, so no one thinks they are unusual. It is the road to Orwell’s world. Also of note from last Sunday’s program: Black fourth-graders in Mississippi now score higher in reading, on average, than those in Massachusetts. How did it make such remarkable progress? Fareed talked with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof. Have a great weekend. Join Indivisible! Support the opposition!
OPRT SNAP – And An Amazing Story August 6, 2026August 5, 2026 OPRT “An Opportunity?” I headlined this December 19, 2023 post: If you bought some OPRT with money you could truly afford to lose, as suggested here, here, and here, and here, you’re either a little behind or ahead depending on what you paid. (I’ve paid as much as $5.98 for a little and $2.33 for a lot. It closed at $3.19 yesterday.) And you may want to watch this video. Executive summary: There’s a clear path to a triple or tentuple, though obviously no guarantee. Well, “you can say that again” — and, having seen Oportun’s second quarter earnings presentation last night, I basically am. Earnings are up; the balance sheet is stronger; the new CEO, whom we dissident shareholders fought long and hard to install, seems to be settling in well. The stock edged up in recent days, perhaps anticipating good news. After the announcement, in after-hours trading, it rose a bit more. I don’t expect anything dramatic to happen; but if the progress keeps coming, as I’m guessing it will, we may one day see OPRT back at its 2021 $25 high — and beyond. I plan to just sit back and watch. SNAP Not a stock, a shonda. Some 450,000 Arizonans have lost their food assistance — more than 100,000 of them children — and that’s just Arizona. Most of the pain was designed to arrive right after November’s election, so low-income voters don’t notice until it’s too late. Though, when you think about it, why should Americans who need food assistance — be they elderly, disabled, down on their luck, or whatever their lame excuse — be allowed to vote in the first place? Back in the day, it was just white men with property. But I digress. Listen to this episode of The Daily — Arizona’s Food Stamp Crisis Is Coming for the Rest of the U.S. — or read the transcript. Join Indivisible! Support the opposition! THE AMAZING STORY There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury Obviously, as will become clear, I should have posted this on Tuesday. That it was written in 1950 is just astonishing. Bravo, Ray Bradbury. (And thanks for sharing it, George Mokray.)
Trump’s Lawyers — And A Contrary View Of A.I. August 5, 2026 WHERE ARE TRUMP’S LAWYERS NOW? A look back at some of Trump’s lawyers, and how things turned out for them. One powerful minute. (The song is nice, too.) BUCKLE YOUR SEAT BELTS Top economist Steve Hanke told Business Insider why he doubts AI will be the job destroyer many expect. What if the trillions being spent on AI turn out to have been a bad investment?
Two Must Watches — And Good News! August 4, 2026August 4, 2026 MUST WATCH Troy Jackson speaks to truth to power — specifically, to the richest man in the world (60 seconds). And this one! Why Trump’s ‘EMBARRASSING’ reflecting pool reversal should WORRY every American. Yes, he won the FIFA Peace Prize. Yes, he has a concept of a plan for “terrific health care at a tiny fraction of the price.” Yes, his 38,000 mentions in the heavily redacted Epstein files released so far are not proof he raped a 13-year-old girl as alleged. But how can 30% of the country possibly still support him? Everything he touches dies. MAKING HUNGER DISAPPEAR New Political Strategy: Don’t Gather Embarrassing Statistics In The First Place — by our very own Professor deLespinasse. GOOD NEWS America Hates Donald Trump. Join Indivisible! Support the opposition!
They Really Are Leaving MAGA August 2, 2026 LEAVING MAGA The people who built Trump now say he’s evil and demonic (150 secnds): Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, et al — WATCH! WE’RE GOING TO WIN IN A LOT OF UNUSUAL PLACES Oath.Vote Founder Brian Derrick has an encouraging list (60 seconds) — WATCH! WANT TO PUT UP A BILLBOARD IN ONE OF THOSE PLACES? LeavingMaga.org just grows and grows. And because no candidate or political party is advocated — just a non-judgmental, welcoming place for people trying to break free from the cult — your contribution is tax-deductible. (If you can afford a few thousand dollars, you can do one all by yourself! Me-mail me and I’ll hook you up.) OATH.VOTE Nathaniel M: “Wednesday, you suggested a difference between how ActBlue and Oath operate that I don’t think is fair. I have no stake or equity in ActBlue, just someone working in the Democratic fundraising ecosystem that cares about overall trust in the system. The value of Oath over other payment processors is what you highlight: it can help donors decide where their dollars can make the most impact. But I think it’s important to point out that Oath charges campaigns a processing fee just like ActBlue. You also suggested that ActBlue sells or shares contact info (as opposed to Oath, which doesn’t), and that’s just not true. As I’m sure you’re aware, Oath, like ActBlue, discloses their donors to the FEC, and third-party vendors harvest that information and append data like cell phone and email, but it’s not ActBlue that’s doing the actual sharing.” Brian responds: “ActBlue directly shares donor contact information with campaigns with no constraints on how it is used. Then the data is sold and swapped and shared in perpetuity. That is the primary driver of spam in the Dem ecosystem. Oath does not share donor email or phone numbers with anyone. We also prohibit campaigns from contacting donors who give through Oath and remove them from the platform if they violate that policy repeatedly. It is also worth noting it is illegal to use FEC data in the way Nathaniel is suggesting. I am not saying it never happens but it certainly isn’t the source of all spam. (And yes, we do have a credit card processing fee — 3.7% versus 3.95% for ActBlue, so ours is already a little lower, and we will continue to lower it as we grow. (Credit card interchange fees are based on volume and we are still tiny compared to ActBlue. We also encourage donors to use ACH to skip the credit card fee and pay just 1% for admin.” → I gave ActBlue $10,000 way back when to help them launch.
HYMC + Puppetry July 31, 2026July 30, 2026 HYMC I have no way of knowing how much this is sober analysis and how much hype — but I like it: HYCROFT MINING (HYMC) -67% OFF ITS HIGHS: the Weak Hands are Gone, Eric Sprott and BlackRock are Still in, the 56-Month Cash Runway & why the World Class Nevada Deposit has Never Been More Valuable! The thing is, especially for those of us who sold calls as the stock was soaring to 60, even here at $20 a share, we’ve done kind of spectacularly well. And in a perfect world, those calls, expiring in January of 2027 and January of 2028, will expire worthless, so we get to keep all the money we sold them for, even as the stock creeps back up toward their strike prices. Extreme example: I was able to sell some January 2028 calls for $2,800 each giving the buyer the right to buy 100 of my shares for $60 each until January 2028. (Calls are traded 100 shares at a time.) At the time, the buyer may have figured, heck, it’s rocketed up from $5 to $60 — it could be $200 in a couple of years, so paying the equivalent of $88 ($60 + $28) will prove to have been a bargain. Plus, if it turns out to be a scam, I’ll have lost $28 instead of $60. But from my point of view, if the stock never goes back up, I have the $20 it’s selling for now plus the $28 I get to keep — not bad on a $3 bet. And if it goes to zero, I still keep the $28 — not terrible. And if it creeps back up to $60 by January, 2028 when the calls expire, I have the $60 stock and keep the $28 per share I got for the calls. That’s my extreme example, because many of the calls I sold were at lower strike prices and/or for less rich premiums . . . as I expect was true for you as well if you were in on this one. Still, I’m a happy camper — and happily holding on in hopes there’s more to that headline than hype. “PUTIN THE PUPPETEER” How Russia Benefits From Trump’s War in Iran
Oath.Vote July 29, 2026 No offense to ActBlue, but this under-5-minute introductory video from my friend Brian Derrick may change the way you do your political giving. His Oath.Vote has thus far channeled $100 million to strategic races without taking a penny (unless you tip them) and without sharing your contact info. I think you’ll find his message compelling. NICK HANAUER Long-time readers know I’m a Nick Hanauer fan. I can’t count the times I’ve posted his originally-banned Ted Talk (under 6 minutes) — it’s not the rich who are the job creators, it’s the middle class — and, years later, his warning to fellow plutocrats: the pitchforks are coming (20 minutes). Yesterday, his Facebook post — People aren’t just mad because things cost too much — led me to his weekly Pitchfork Economics podcast. I plan to listen to the episode that just dropped — The Good Life Economy — on my next power walk. Nick and Mark Cuban — and, well, Warren Buffett and Mackenzie Scott — are my favorite billionaires.